Craft Beer Review – Southern Tier Iniquity Black Ale

Southern Tier Iniquity Black Ale: Brewed in Lakewood, New York at a strength of 9% abv with 50 IBU’s this fusion styled beer was for sale at O’Hares in Richmond, BC I believe and looked like an interesting one to try. I personally like these dark roasty ales as long as the hop profile doesn’t clash with it too much.

Aroma and Appearance: It pours a dark mahogany colour when that can only be seen if you tilt the glass into the light, with some hidden centered carbonation and two fingers of tan foam. The aroma was well toasted bread and grains, some mild citrus and tropical mango and malty toffee with some stone fruit that is a bit of a mix of cherries and plums.

Flavour: Fairly malt forward with malty sweet toffee and a touch of fresh mango at first, the toasty bread and smoke comes in profoundly in the middle making this taste more like an Imperial Stout with a smooth mouth feel that is a bit creamy and finally finishing with a dry cocoa bitterness.

Overall Impression: Kind of like a hybrid Imperial Stout and Imperial IPA, but only the good things shine in this one. Quite a tasty brew, a good one to import because even as the hops drop off it won’t hurt the beer very much.

Rating: Very nice, in fact excellent at 8/10 and one I will buy again for sure. This will have some decent shelf life and therefore will taste good for awhile while changing over time.

Food Pairing: This is a great mid fall sunny day beer and BBQ kind of beer so I would pair it up with some BBQ Bacon Ranch Skewers like the one’s in the video below.